Philippe Legrain

I participated in a debate in City AM about this with Steven Woolfe, UKIP’s immigration spokesman.

China’s biggest private car maker, Geely, is not only taking Sweden’s Volvo off Ford’s hands. It is also buying Manganese Bronze, the company that makes London’s famous black cabs. Bad news? Hardly. With Geely’s help, Manganese Bronze is more likely to crack the huge Chinese market, now the world’s biggest.

Management Today, February 2007. Foreign workers make a huge contribution to the UK economy, bringing skills, creativity, experience and willing hands. We should welcome them

On the day that India’s Tata won a bidding war for Corus, the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker that was once British Steel, I debated whether such foreign takeovers of British companies are a good thing with Will Hutton of the Work Foundation on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Listen here

Corporate social responsibility – it seems impossible to be against it: who wants companies to be irresponsible towards society? But words are deceptive. The premise behind CSR – that the profit motive is tainted, global capitalism is leading the world to rack and ruin, and business has a duty to give something back to society […]

Prospect, October 2006. Apple’s threat to sue companies that use the word “Pod” in product names is reminiscent of the bully-boy tactics that made Microsoft so unpopular in the 1990s

Prospect, September 2006. Disappointment at Doha, but it wasn’t all America’s fault. Is BP having too much bad luck? And Wolfowitz demands that the World Bank stops corruption

Prospect, August 2006. Higher energy prices are likely to mean rising inflation and slower growth. Plus the misguided populism of EU commissioners

My argument that Britain should prevent Gazprom, the Russian gas company that is in effect an arm of a potentially hostile Kremlin, from getting a hold on its gas market was widely criticised. But if you don’t believe me, listen to Andrei Illarionov, a former Kremlin adviser who fell out with President Putin’s team. He […]

Prospect, July 2006. Shareholder capitalism finally makes it into law. And the NGO’s flawed accountability charter shows they don’t practice what they preach